Hi Suki
We know exactly what you are going through
fortunately we seem now to be getting some where
you probably think that you can't take much more as that is where we were at :? We had went as far as thinking about the possibilty of giving him away!! :cry: Had we bought a pup with a severe behavioural problem?
It turns out, regardless of what you read in the books and no matter how prepared you think you are, its not easy. Every pup is different, we spoke with friends about their dogs and no-one would have a bad word to say about them - apparently they didn't ever have these problems with their dogs, or at least they have forgotten as we now know!
My wife crooned and cooed far too much for us to progress with Rusty. She has now curbed this as he was beginning to think he was the boss, the centre of attention. Of course being pups they need attention, but we have tried to be more sly about how we give Rusty attention. The kids, to be honest, were bloody nuisances and obviously were excited about having a pup, but we have spoken to them to make sure Rusty has time alone. I don't wish to exalt all the blame on the rest of my family, as although I don't want a spoiled dog, I suppose I was too hard. Therfore Rusty wasn't getting the consistency he needed. So all the talk and arrangements we made about being consistent when he came home, had to be re-done as we had unawarely broken it in the midst of the trauma!!! :shock:
Writing this even now, it seems like ages ago, but we are only talking about last week!!!!!! :shock:
The progress we have made over the past few days has been incredible. We haven't really changed what we were doing, just relaxed a bit. We have also allocated a new sin-bin in the porch, where there is nothing to chew, nothing to see, so its basically a jail. Whereas we had been originally putting him in the kitchen. This was having nil-effect, as this is were he sleeps, eats, goes out the back door, so he only associated it with fun things! He hates the porch! He howls like a banshee, but do not let him back in until he stops howling, as he will think all he needs to do is howl and he'll be let back in!!! The first few times its hard to listen to, but you 'need' to let him get on with it, they learn very quickly. Rusty now knows that howling/barking/crying, doesn't get him back into our company and the best way to stay in our company is to behave in the first place.
I'm not for a minute making it sound as though we have cracked it and are some sort of super owners, obviously as Rusty is still having his moments. But, he's also been with us 5 weeks, which seem like forever, so he's growing with us too.
The books are great, but remember they aren't specific to your pup. We've found taliking to others and posting on this forum invaluable. Other owners share opinions and points of view and sometimes we think "maybe Rusty ain't THAT bad after all"? His toilet training is 1st class and I 'think' we might have cracked (fingers crossed). Other folks are still clearing up in the house after their dogs when they are a year old!!!!!!!
Keep with it, keep posting and replying - its got us through a few difficult weeks.
Mick Elle & Rusty
